How to Make a Board Game: Part Two
Making Rules –
In our last post, we looked at making a game board with Flibbix, the first in our series of how to make a board game. In this post, we’ll look at making rules.
With Flibbix, you can easily make your own board game rules, even if it’s your first time. The How to Play sheet and Game Guide that come with Flibbix will get you going right away, but here’s how it works if haven’t had a chance to play yet.
If you try making a board game from scratch (by drawing on paper or cardboard, for example), it can be pretty difficult to design a game board and make rules. Flibbix gives you tools to easily “build” your own board game. Rather than start from scratch, you have building blocks to make your game board and rules. This lets you make a game easily—and one that’s different every time you play—while sparing you from the more difficult parts of the game design process.
Now, we love designing games from scratch, too, and would encourage everyone to try it, but Flibbix makes it possible for everyone (ages 7 and up, that is) to do it quickly and easily. And to make a game that’s a lot more dynamic than traditional “static” board games. It’s a lot less work, and a lot more fun.
Making your own rules
Flibbix comes with Make your own Rules™ sheets. These let you make rules for your game quickly and easily…mostly by checking off boxes on the rule sheet. There are a few places you can write in rules or actions, too. But, for your first few games, just write in a simple action, like Move Ahead 5, and later try more elaborate rules or actions.
So, who makes the rules? The best way is to have all the players in the game agree on what rules they want, and choose one person to fill out the rule sheet. But, you can also have one person build the game board, and another choose rules. Next game, switch. It’s really up to you. On a side note, having players (especially kids) make and agree on rules before they play a game really cuts down on arguments over rules later. That’s something really unique about Flibbix.
What’s on the Rule Sheet?
This is a look at each section of the Flibbix Make your own Rules sheets, so you can understand what each one does.
1st Player Is…
Here you choose who goes first when playing your game. If you want, you can “spin” instead of rolling by using yourself as a spinner. The Human Spinner™ card shows you how.
Play Order is…
Here you choose the play order for the game. For example, does it go from youngest to oldest or clockwise?
Opponent on Card/Tile Means…
Some cards or tiles in the game mention an “Opponent.” For example, Switch with Opponent, or Zap Opponent Back 5. This rule is to choose who that is. Is it the “Opponent” in the lead? Or does the person that drew the card or landed on the tile get to choose?
Landing on Another Player…
Does anything special happen when two players land on the same space? You get to decide.
On “Jump to” Color Space…
There are a few special color space tiles in the game, and tiles or cards that let you jump directly to those spaces. There may be more than one of those same color spaces in your game board design. If so, which Red Space tile do you jump to when you land on Jump to Red Space?
To Win:
Ever been a few spaces from the Finish in a game, rolled a six, but couldn’t win because the rules call for an exact roll? If you like that, check “Exact Roll Required on Finish.” Otherwise, choose “Exact Roll or Higher…” and you can win on any roll that gets you to Finish—even if you roll higher than the number of spaces between you and Finish.
Actions for Custom Tile™ and Custom Card™
Choose what happens when someone lands on a Custom Tile or draws a Custom Card. Use a favorite from the board, like Tile Swap. Or make up any actions you and the other players like. Here are a few ideas:
- “Draw Card” Actions (draw two or three Flibbix cards)
- “Move” Actions (Move ahead two or four spaces)
- “Change Board” Actions (choose to flip, swap a tile—or both!)
- “Turn” Actions (lose two turns, get two extra turns)
- “Social” Actions (fun or wacky stuff to get people to interact)
Custom Rule™:
If you like, you can make up one custom game rule on your Make your own Rules sheet. Put it in the “Custom Rule” section. Here are a few ideas:
- If you roll a certain number on your turn (such as 1), draw a card and also move as many spaces as you rolled.
- All players roll once before the game. The player with the highest roll gets to choose their pawn color first.
- All players roll once before the game. The player with the lowest roll gets a Shield card.
- Handicap: Give younger players a Shield or other safety card(s) before the game to give them an advantage.
You can find example Make your own Rules sheets and rule ideas on the Flibbix Rule Roundup page. You can also check out our last post “How to Make a Board Game: Part One – Make a Game Board” In our next post, we’ll look at Flibbix cards.
Home >
|